Joe Mauer Is A Lucky Hitter

Well, at least in 2006, according to PROTRADE. The fellas over there devised a formula to find out...well here, I'll just let them explain it to you.

We set out to uncover the true batting average and slugging percentage of each player in the big leagues if luck were taken out of the equation, called context neutral statistics. For example, a pop up that travels 210 feet from home plate and is 30 feet from the left field line may be caught 85% of the time and drop for a bloop single 15% of the time. If a player hits the ball with those characteristics and a defender happens to misjudge it in the air and it falls for a hit, did the batter have a quality plate appearance or was he just lucky?

Some of the biggest names in the game benefit from luck from time to time, as just 12 lucky hits over the course of over 600 plate appearances is the difference between a .278 hitter and a .300 hitter.

Mauer hit .347 last year; but if you took "luck" out of the equation his average would have been .312. Still very good, but not quite as good as .347. Some other players that grace this list: Jim Thome, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Teahen, Manny Ramirez and Gary Matthews Jr. (See it wasn't HGH. He was just lucky last year.)

PROTRADE also busted out their 2006 all-unlucky team for MLB.com, which, if they kept stats for the game of life, you'd find my name somewhere on the list.

(Huge HT: Baseball Musings)